Spiraling

H.L. KARHOFF

This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to real persons, places, or events is unintentional.

SPIRALING

© 2015 by H.L. Karhoff

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1523262816 

ISBN-10: 1523262818 

To Tami

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to everyone that helped me through this process:

My parents for encouraging me to follow my dreams.

Mrs. Jeri Criger-Williams for teaching me grammar and diction.

Brad Robinson for inadvertently reminding me who I really am.

Rebecca Church for insight, honest critique, and keeping me focused.

My amazing betas for their thoughtful review and advice.

And last, but not least, Tami Beasley-Gates for asking me to write a love story.

The entire room was silent as we waited for the bell to ring, releasing us from our boredom. Only the soft flipping of papers every so often could be heard. My ears caught the faint sound of JoyAnn humming “Amazing Grace” from across the aisle to my right and the scraping of Mrs. White’s chalk on the blackboard. The rustling of papers followed as most students wrote down the assignment.

Taking algebra seventh hour had not been one of my better ideas. When I’d signed up for it during the final weeks of eighth grade, I hadn’t accounted for how bored I would be by the end of the day. My schedule was a nightmare. As freshmen we were only allowed two electives and one had to be a foreign language, so lectures and busy work filled most of my day. By two o’clock, my brain was worn out, and I had another hour to suffer through my worst subject. Even though we weren’t very far into the school year, I was sure only a miracle would get me through the class with a passing grade.

Jason Rusamano tapped on my shoulder. He sat in the desk behind mine and pestered me daily with meaningless stories I didn’t care to hear. I turned around, prepared with a snappy response to anything he had to say, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, he held out a folded piece of notebook paper torn from a spiral. The frayed edges protruded from one side while the other was wedged between the index and forefinger of his left hand. I eyed him suspiciously before I took the note, glancing at Mrs. White as I turned around. She appeared oblivious to the exchange.

Assuming the note was from Jason, I tucked it under my notebook without reading it. I had no interest in anything he had to say. It annoyed me that he was no longer satisfied with bothering me verbally; he had to launch a written assault. Picking up my pencil, I scribbled the assignment on a blank page in my notebook before returning to the page where I’d been drawing an unflattering depiction of Mrs. White for most of the hour. I’d just finished her scraggly hair when the nuisance of a boy tapped on my shoulder again.

Get a clue, loser,
I thought.
I’m not interested.

Not giving up, he pulled one of my golden curls until a sharp pain poked at my scalp. I put my hand to my head and whirled around, glaring at him.

“
What
is your problem?” I demanded as quietly as possible.

“It’s not from me,” he whispered. “Chad asked me to give it to you earlier.” He motioned to the far side of the room. “I almost forgot.”

“Oh.” I relaxed my scowl. “Thanks.”

My irritation faded. I stole a quick glance at Chad as I turned back around in my seat. Chad flashed a smile and my heart fluttered. I didn’t want him to know how delighted I was that he had finally acknowledged me, but my impatience to see what the note said made it difficult to appear indifferent. Carefully, I slid the note out from under my turquoise spiral, unfolded it, and read through its contents. Once I’d finished, I refolded it and tucked it into my book. Then I returned to drawing as if the note’s contents were no big deal.

Despite the calm of my outward appearance, however, my heart raced. I could barely focus on recreating the hideous pattern on Mrs. White’s blouse. I’d had a crush on Chad Jenkins since the year began. He was one of the most attractive boys in school, and I was determined that he would be my boyfriend. The problem was that before that day he acted like I didn’t exist. Where boys in middle school had fawned over me, high school boys were more complicated. Unless they were freshmen, they usually ignored me altogether, and Chad was a junior.

I finished the last awful paisley on my depiction of Mrs. White’s blouse as the bell rang. It took concentration not to jump from my chair. I collected my things, trying to stay cool. Then I made my way toward the door.

“I’ll take that now, Miss Douglas.” Mrs. White held out her hand as I passed her desk. “You know the rules about passing notes in class.”

I sighed, opening my book to where I thought I’d stuffed the note. Four others fell out on her desk. I quickly picked them up and tossed one to her, not caring that it wasn’t the right one. At that point, I just wanted to escape her scrutiny.

“This is getting ridiculous, Tori,” she said. “Next time I catch you passing notes, I’m going to give you detention.”

“Fine,” I replied. “Can I go now?”

She waved her hand toward the door. “Go.”

I hurried out of the classroom, sufficiently embarrassed for one day. My cousin, JoyAnn, and best friend, Kennedy, were waiting for me in the hall.

“What was that about?” Kennedy asked.

I rolled my eyes. I hated Mrs. White more than any other teacher. Not only did she teach my worst subject, she was unreasonable and mean. She had a strict “no tolerance” policy for just about everything—note passing, talking, turning in assignments late—and gave us ridiculous amounts of homework. It was like she wanted us to fail so she could torture us for two years instead of just one.

“Passing notes,” I answered. “I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. It’s not like out in the real world my boss would get all bent out of shape if I passed a note to someone. Really, they send memos in offices all the time.”

“I don’t think it’s the same thing,” Joy said.

“Like you’re going to work in an office, anyway.” Kennedy chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Kennedy answered. “I just thought you were going to be a model or something. That’s what you were saying the other day.”

“I’ve got four years to figure it out,” I said. “Mom says I have to finish school.”

“The nerve.”

“I know, right?” I laughed.

There were two main halls that ran the length of the school. Chad caught up with us as we reached the first and tapped me on the shoulder. He looked amazing, as always. His short, chestnut hair swept across his forehead above his sparkling, emerald green eyes, and the sleeves of his white button-up shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing off his flawless tan. I didn’t think it was possible for a guy to be any closer to perfect.

“Hey, Tori,” he said.

“Hi, Chad,” I replied, biting my bottom lip.

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure.” I stopped walking and waved to my friends. “See you later, guys.”

“Bye,” Kennedy and Joy said almost in unison before they continued into the main hall.

I turned back to Chad. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Did Jason give you my note?”

“Mm-hmm.” I twirled one of my golden curls around my finger.

“Well. Do you want to go out or not?”

Yes! Yes! Of course I want to go out with you. Are you crazy? You’re only like the hottest guy ever,
I thought, but all I said was, “Sure.”

“Cool,” he replied.

I watched him walk away before I turned and rushed to my locker. Kennedy and Joy were already there, digging out the books they needed for homework. Joy’s neatly organized locker became barren as she put most of her books into her backpack.

“You’re going to need your algebra book.” She told Kennedy as I approached. “She assigned a lot of problems to do tonight and we’ve got that test on Friday.”

“I’ll do it in first hour,” Kennedy said. “I’ve got study hall, remember?”

“You’ll end up talking all hour and you won’t get it done.” Joy frowned.

Kennedy rolled her eyes. “There’s a reason I took study hall first hour. It’s so I don’t have to waste my time outside of school doing school stuff.”

“Homework is
supposed
to be done at home. Hence the name.”

“Get over it, Joy. We can’t all be goody-goody nerds.”

“All right, you two,” I interceded, laughing.

They both huffed and turned back to their lockers. Joy straightened what remained of the books inside hers, and then shut the door gently, barely making a sound. A few doors down, in the locker next to mine, Kennedy searched for something without much luck. She was the messiest person I knew; her locker looked more like a trash bin than a place to store books. I observed her for a second before I opened my own locker and set my algebra book inside.

“Don’t tell me you’re not doing your homework either,” Joy said.

“I’m going to do it,” I replied as I moved the book into my bag to shut her up. Then I looked at Kennedy. “Have you started on that essay we have to do in English?”

Kennedy peeked around my locker door. “It’s not due until next Friday.”

“Well then.” I crammed my civics and biology books in my bag. “I won’t worry about that right now. I thought she said it was due this week.” I pulled my bag out of my locker and shut the door. “Maybe that was my civics paper.”

Joy stepped toward us. “It was going to be, but Mrs. Andrews changed it this—”

“Who cares?” Kennedy said, slamming her locker door. “What did Chad want to talk to you about? That’s what I want to know.”

“He asked me out.” I smiled.

“What did you say?” Kennedy asked.

“What do you think I said? Yes.”

“No way.” Kennedy screeched.

“Yes, way.” My smile widened.

“That is so great, Tori. I’m so happy for you!”

“I know. I’m so happy for me, too.”

“You’re going out with Chad?” Joy asked with an unmistakable lack of enthusiasm in her voice. “Why? Until today he’s been kind of a jerk to you.”

“Whatever, Joy.” I rolled my eyes at her. “He’s hot.”

“So?” Joy replied. “Maybe you should put less stock in appearances and more in personality. Chad’s self-centered and arrogant. He treated his last girlfriend like dirt. Don’t you remember? He was always being mean to her.”

I shook my head. “No, he wasn’t. Angie’s just a drama queen.”

“If you really have to have a boyfriend, there are other guys out there you know. Jason really likes you and he’s nice. Maybe you should—”

“Jason?” I burst into laughter. “He’s a complete loser, and he’s not even cute.”

“I think he’s cute,” Kennedy said.

“What?” I looked at Kennedy. “Jason Rusamano? Cute?”

“Yeah.” Kennedy nodded. “I mean, he’s cute in his own way and he’s funny.”

“Then
you
ask him out.” I rolled my eyes. “He annoys me like crazy.”

“Maybe I will,” Kennedy replied with a jerk of her head.

“Whatever.” I shook my head, giving up on reasoning with her. She’d see for herself soon enough that Jason Rusamano was nothing but a nuisance. That was if he’d even go out with her. It had been obvious for a while that he harbored a crush on me. He was constantly trying to get my attention even though I’d never given him any indication that I was the slightest bit interested. I was hopeful that since I was taken, he would give Kennedy a chance or at least let her down easy. Despite the self-confident attitude she showed the rest of the world, I knew her well enough to know that she was incredibly insecure. Even a turn down from Jason Rusamano might have damaged her fragile ego.

Closing our lockers, we left the short side hall. It opened up into one of the two main halls just beside the commons area which had vending machines and tables where students gathered at different times throughout the day. Each class had a separate corner. The freshman area was nearest our lockers with the sophomores against the same wall and the upperclassmen across the large corridor, closer to the snack and soda machines. Like most days, the commons was crowded with football players meeting up before practice, stoners raiding the vending machines, geeks playing a stupid card game, and nerds from the tutoring center setting up to offer free after-school help to anybody brave enough to sit down.

As we passed by, my eyes fell on Chad. He stood near the junior table, talking to Jessica Gordon. I’d heard several rumors about her, none of which painted her as a person I wanted around my new boyfriend. It bothered me that he was talking to her. He looked in my direction and grinned when he saw me. I smiled back. Then I shot a contemptuous glare at Jessica. Chad chuckled, turned back to her, and said something that made her giggle.

“What’s wrong?” Kennedy asked.

“Chad’s talking to Jessica Gordon,” I answered.

“So? She’s friends with his sister. They’re probably waiting for Annabelle or something. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

“I guess you’re right.”

I glanced at Chad before we headed out the side doors. He continued talking to Jessica. I tried not to let my jealousy surge again. Just because we were going out now didn’t mean he couldn’t talk to other girls. I had to accept that he had friends and some of them were female. It wouldn’t be right for me to ask him not to talk to them anymore.

“Did you hear about the party on Saturday?” Kennedy asked.

I looked at her. “What party?”

“I guess you didn’t,” she said. “It’s supposed to be really cool. Some junior is throwing it. I heard about it from Bobby Ratcliff. He was going on about it in fifth hour.”

“We should go.”

“I know.”

We talked about the party the rest of the way to our street. Joy didn’t want to go, but Kennedy and I couldn’t wait. According to what she’d heard, it was supposed to be the first big party of the year. Everyone was going. At least, everyone who
mattered
was going. It was our first real opportunity to mingle with upperclassmen.